(This favorite White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley is today's pick for the month of Daily Phase One Recipes. If you've never thought of combining these ingredients, you might be surprised what a delicious lunch salad this is, but be sure to use the tuna packed in olive oil for best flavor. You can see all the recipes from the month by clicking Daily Phase One Recipes.)

In the early days of my blog I discovered a delicious and affordable brand of Tuna Packed in Olive Oil, which changed my way of thinking about canned tuna forever. That tuna plus my love of parsley and lemon inspired my version of this White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley and it's turned into a favorite lunch that I've made over and over. I updated the photo for this recipe in the summer of 2011, when I had plenty of fresh parsley from the garden, but parsley is an herb that's available and inexpensive all year from the grocery store, and I love that this salad uses ingredients I always have on hand.

Nowdays I use cannellini beans for the salad, but most any white beans will work. Rinse beans and let them drain well.

Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and fresh ground black pepper to make the dressing.

Put the beans in a bowl and add the dressing. Let beans marinate while you drain the tuna and chop the parsley and onion.

I use the same mini-colander to drain the tuna.

I use a generous amount of parsley, probably a packed cup of chopped parsley, but if you're not that much of a parsley fan you can use less.

I originally made the salad with chopped red onion, but now I'd probably use sliced green onion instead.

Gently stir the chopped parsley, sliced green onion, and drained tuna into the marinating beans. Season to taste with more salt and fresh ground black pepper if desired and serve immediately.

And even though I consider myself barely above an amateur photographer, oh how I have improved! Here's the original photo of this salad from 2007.

White Bean Salad with Tuna and Parsley

(Makes 2-3 servings, recipe created by Kalyn, inspired by many other similar salads seen in cookbooks and on the web.)

Put beans in colander and rinse well with cold water, until no more foam appears. Let drain, then pat dry with paper towels. In small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Put the beans into a bowl big enough to hold all the salad ingredients and mix in dressing. Let the beans marinate while you drain the tuna, chop the parsley, and dice or slice the onions.

Put the tuna into the same colander you used to drain the beans and let the oil drain off. (I wipe out the colander with a paper towel so the tuna doesn't get wet.) Chop the parsley and chop red onions or thinly slice green onion, whichever you're using.

Add chopped parsley, red or green onion, and drained tuna to the marinating beans and gently combine. (Don't overstir, you want the tuna to stay chunky.)

I usually taste and see if I want a bit more lemon juice Season to taste with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt and serve. This will stay good in the refrigerator for at least a day or two, but it probably won't last that long.

This salad would be fine for any phase of the South Beach Diet, but limit portion size for phase one. (If you make it like I do with lots of parsley, you can probably have about a cup for phase one, since the salad is about half tuna and parsley.)

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

More Tasty Salads with Parsley:
(Recipes from other blogs may not be South Beach Friendly, check ingredients)

Want even more recipes? I find these recipes from other blogs using Food Blog Search.

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44 comments:

I love salad like this - white beans, tuna and parsley....perfect spring salad. My parsley is in full second growth!BTY - did you know that a proper Salad Nicoise is only made with good canned tuna? Never fresh?

I share your taste in tuna and while the canned varietes of Italian tuna are very good, wait til you buy it by the ounce from a deli in Rome (like Franchi's on Via Cola di Rienzo). Heavenly taste! Romans add to this tuna salad tomato slice when they are in season, and eat it with that wonderful Casareccio bread, dunking every last drop out of the bowl. By the way, you have made me to go read up on the South Beach Diet, interesting. I shall incorporate some of the great nutrition tips into my cooking (I am not dieting, just trying to eat healthy). Thank you!

I am totally with you on the cilantro love - it's one of my favorites. Parsley? Eh, not so much. Italian tuna, though, now we're talking! I first discovered it when a made a Spumo di Tonno from Michael Chiarello that is out-of-this-world good.

Merisi, how I'd love to try that Italian Tuna in Rome! Someday! I do think South Beach is pretty nutritionally sound.

Cate, cilantro will always be my first love, no doubt about it.

Mimi, I'm going to make some today, now that I discovered I have parsley growing in my garden. Woo Hoo. (Love the way it comes back like that. For some reason the flat leaf parsley doesn't come back as well for me.)

Oh my goodness—talk about bad photos! Yikes. (Mine in that 2007 post.) Still, the salad was great, and I'm going to make it your way as soon as I can stand on two feet again. Or maybe I can talk Keith through it. :) SO GOOD. Thanks for this recipe.

I love looking at photos from our early days of blogging. Sometimes I'm not sure mine have improved all that much! I love white bean and tuna salad. The person who taught me to make it years ago was the manager of our local grocery store. He came from an Italian family, and it was one of their favorite dishes. I've been making it ever since, and with parsley from my own garden it tastes better than ever.

I would like to try this but I just can't imagine liking the parsley. I always trust you fully and have NEVER been disappointed with a recipe but I'm just not sure. Can you suggest another herb to either replace the parsley or to put with it maybe half and half?

Thanks for the tuna recommendation. I've eaten way too much Starkist tuna as a kid and now associated canned tuna with a bland, almost bitter, tinny taste. Which is unfortunate, since so many good quick recipes involve canned tuna. I'll be sure see if my local supermarkets carry Tonno Genova.

Chasing Joy, I think basil or mint would taste good in this (but I'd use much less basil or mint than I did parsley.) Another thing that I think might be nice in this is just chopped celery and celery leaves to replace the parsley. I am surprised I'm not recommending cilantro since I love it so much, but I just can't imagine it with these flavors.

Diana, I think that brand is *almost* as good as the much-more-expensive imported Italian tuna I buy occasionally at the Italian market here. I bought a case of 3 oz. cans from Amazon, and really like the small cans.

I love the combination of white beans and tuna and can't wait to try this version. I will probably replace the curly parsley with flat leaf Italian since I like it better. Thanks for another wonderful easy healthy recipe.

Your new photo did its job, it reeled me n immediately. I love the combination in this dish of white beans and oil packed tuna, and I'm sure the parsley adds the right touch of freshness to it all. Can't wait to try it.

I always drain off the oil from the tuna and use fresh oil, but others have also asked that and I'm guessing you could use the oil from the tuna. It would make the tuna flavor more pronounced in the salad though.

Hey everyone! I always keep the olive oil from the canned tuna! It really give more depth of flavor to the whole dish. I drain in into a measuring jug and make up the rest needed with more EVOO. Delicious! Same with a good greek salad with tuna in oil, use the oil and it's wonderful! I know what we're having for dinner tonight! Your recipe looks wonderful!

I used tuna packed in water because that's what I had on hand. I also only used 1/2 can white beans to save on carbs. I used a little less parsley since I was serving this on a bed of greens. I used a little granulated garlic. I served this on a salad with a little crumbled feta on top. This was a tasty, protein packed meal that was still light and perfect for a summer day.

This was good. I never before used curly parsley as a salad green which is pretty much what is happening here. I use flat parsley al the time, mostly in Italian-ish dishes. But curly parsley i think of as some kind of weird garnish from the 70's. This was a revelation. I used the red onion since I like it better than green and I also thought the color looked good in the salad. This may be blasphemy, but since I can't find Italian tuna locally, I just used Starkist or Bumblebee in olive oil, (don't remember which) and it was still delicious. But next time I am in Winston-Salem, my nearest city, I'll look at Whole Foods and Costco for the Italian tuna. If it's any better, I may not be able to stand it.

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